In 17th century Salem, Massachusetts teenager, Thackery Binx, is unsuccessful in his attempts to rescue his little sister Emily from the three evil Sanderson sister, and the trio of witches transform Thackery into an immortal cat for his trouble.

Three hundred years later, high school student Max is uprooted from his home in California and transplanted to Salem, Massachusetts with his indifferent parents and his bratty little sister Dani. When he accidentally brings the Sanderson sisters back to life, Max—along with his high school crush, Allison, & Binx the cat—scramble to destroy the witches and save Dani from the same fate as Emily.

This book, which is a tie-in to the Disney film of the same name, is a disappointment on many levels.

The story drags on and on and is very repetitive. Max & entourage get trapped by the witches, escape, and destroy the witches—only to have that same scenario repeated over and over again. It felt like being on a really boring & never-ending merry-go-round. It drags on so long, most young children would be unable to stay interested.

I wouldn’t read this book to my children, anyway. It is very violent: two bullies gang up on Max, Max stalks Allison through the halls of the high school, the Sanderson sisters are brutally executed, and—of course—the witches' activities revolve around kidnapping, murdering, and eating children.

There are also a lot of offensive sexual references in the book. For the most part, there are childish giggles about boobies, and bazoomas, and other idiotic idioms for Allison’s breasts. But there are also much more vulgar sexual references pertaining to the witches that are just shocking for a children’s book, including instances that occur when they are executed and hijacking a bus.

Overall, this books suffers from being long-winded and boring. And, although clearly designed and marketed to be appealing to a juvenile audience, the violence and sexual references make it highly inappropriate for little ones. ( )